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Earl Sweatshirt
Thebe Neruda Kgositsile (born February 24, 1994), professionally known as Earl Sweatshirt, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter, actor, radio personality, DJ, and fashion designer. He was a member of several collectives and duos, most notably Odd Future, EarlWolf and Hog Slaughta Boyz. Sweatshirt also hosted his own radio show ''Stay Inside'' from July 2016 to September 2018, and founded his clothing brand Deathworld in October 2017. Early life Earl Sweatshirt was born Thebe Neruda Kgositsile in Chicago, Illinois, to Cheryl Harris, a law professor at University of California, Los Angeles, and Keorapetse Kgositsile, a South African poet and political activist. Harris and Kgositsile separated when Sweatshirt was eight years old. He attended the UCLA Lab School in Los Angeles and New Roads High School and Middle School in Santa Monica. Musical Career 2008–09: Kitchen Cutlery and The Backpackerz Earl Sweatshirt first started rapping in the 8th grade. In 2008 and 2009, under the name Sly Tendencies, he posted tracks for his mixtape, Kitchen Cutlery, via MySpace. He and two of his friends, Loofy and Jw Mijo, formed a rap trio called The Backpackerz. They were going to release a mixtape titled World Playground but disbanded sometime in 2009. In 2009, Tyler, The Creator discovered Sly Tendencies via his MySpace account after he reached out to Tyler to tell him he was a fan of his work. Sly later changed his rap name to Earl Sweatshirt and eventually joined Tyler's rap group Odd Future. Sweatshirt and Odd Future have been featured in mainstream magazines such as Spin, Billboard and The Fader. 2010–11: Earl and hiatus in Samoa His debut mixtape, Earl, was self-released March 31, 2010 as a free digital download on the Odd Future website. Most of the mixtape was produced by Tyler, The Creator. Earl was named the 24th-best album of 2010 by Complex. Despite positive reactions from both critics and fans, various sources indicated that Sweatshirt had stopped making music with Odd Future. Posts from Tyler, The Creator's Twitter and Formspring accounts seemed to indicate that Sweatshirt's mother would not grant permission to release any of Sweatshirt's music; although after his return, Earl later expressed in an interview that his mother sent him to Samoa due to getting into trouble with friends. Earl attended Coral Reef Academy, a therapeutic retreat school for at-risk boys, located outside of the Samoan capital of Apia. At Coral Reef Academy, Earl worked to earn back privileges, and the opportunity to return home. At the beginning of his enrollment, he was unable to use the bathroom unsupervised. While there, he read Manning Marable's biography on Malcolm X and Richard Fariña’s counterculture fiction. He wrote rhymes, including most of his verse on "Oldie," his only contribution to The OF Tape Vol. 2. Earl was brought back from Samoa by Leila Steinberg, the first manager of Tupac Shakur, who today still manages his career. On December 1, 2011, three formerly unreleased songs by Sweatshirt were released through the OddFutureTalk Odd Future Unreleased mixtape. In December 2011, Sweatshirt was announced as a potential candidate for XXL's 2012 Freshmen List. 2012–13: Return from Samoa and Doris On February 8, 2012, rumours spread around the internet that Sweatshirt had returned to the U.S. when a video of him surfaced on YouTube with a preview of a new song saying if viewers wanted "the full thing" they would have to give him 50,000 followers on Twitter. He also later confirmed on his new Twitter account that he had returned to his home in Los Angeles. Earl appeared on the song "Oldie" from Odd Future's debut album The OF Tape Vol. 2. This was Earl's return to official Odd Future releases and his first appearance on an Odd Future Records release. On March 20, a video released on the official Odd Future YouTube page featured Earl in a cypher-style music video rapping along to his verse from "Oldie" with the other members of the crew. That same day, Earl performed with the group at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on March 20, 2012. On April 9, 2012, rapper Casey Veggies released a mixtape titled Customized Greatly Vol. 3 that included a song featuring Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler, The Creator, Domo Genesis, and Hodgy Beats titled "PNCINTLOFWGKTA." During that month Earl Sweatshirt signed on to create his own record label imprint, Tan Cressida, to be distributed through Columbia Records. He turned down several other larger offers due to his priority of remaining close to Odd Future. Earl Sweatshirt was featured on the track "Super Rich Kids" from Frank Ocean's debut album, channel ORANGE, released digitally July 10, 2012. On July 16, Domo Genesis and The Alchemist released the first official single, "Elimination Chamber", from their collaboration album No Idols, which featured Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, and Action Bronson. He was also later featured on the album again on the tracks "Daily News" (also featuring SpaceGhostPurrp and Action Bronson) and "Gamebreaker". On July 23, 2012, Flying Lotus released a song titled "Between Friends" on the Adult Swim Single series which features Earl Sweatshirt and Captain Murphy. Earl Sweatshirt was also featured on Hodgy Beats and Left Brain's second and final studio album as MellowHype, Numbers, on the track "P2". On November 2, 2012, Earl released his first solo single since his return from Samoa, titled "Chum". On November 12, he announced in a tweet that his debut studio album will be titled ''Gnossos'' but later decided against the title. On December 4, 2012, Earl announced that the album will instead be called Doris. That same day the music video for "Chum" was posted on YouTube. Doris was reported early on to feature vocals and/or production from Tyler, The Creator, Frank Ocean, Om'mas Keith, Thundercat, Domo Genesis, Mac Miller, The Neptunes, Christian Rich, Vince Staples, BadBadNotGood, Pharrell Williams, Samiyam, The Alchemist, Casey Veggies, The Internet (Syd and Matt Martians) and RZA. On March 6, 2013, while performing with Flying Lotus and Mac Miller, Earl premiered three new songs off Doris: "Burgundy" produced by Pharrell Williams, "Hive" featuring Casey Veggies and Vince Staples, and "Guild" featuring Mac Miller. Earl also confirmed the next single to be titled "Whoa" featuring Tyler, The Creator. The song was released to iTunes on March 12, 2013, along with the music video being released, which was directed by Tyler. Doris was released on August 20, 2013, under Tan Cressida and Columbia Records. Doris featured guest appearances from Odd Future members Domo Genesis, Frank Ocean, Tyler, The Creator, along with Vince Staples, RZA, Casey Veggies and Mac Miller. Production was primarily handled by Sweatshirt under the pseudonym randomblackdude and production duo Christian Rich. Additional production was provided by Matt Martians, The Neptunes, RZA, Samiyam, BadBadNotGood, Frank Ocean, and Tyler, The Creator. In September 2013, Complex named Sweatshirt the tenth best producer in hip hop. Upon its release, Doris was met with universal critical acclaim from music critics, including perfect scores by The Guardian and Los Angeles Times, which praised Sweatshirt's rhyme schemes and lyrics along with the gritty underground production. The album also fared well commercially debuting at number five on the US Billboard 200 and number one on US Top Rap Albums chart. 2014–15: I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside and Solace On October 10, 2014, Earl confirmed that he had completed the follow-up album to Doris. On November 5, 2014, he released a new song entitled "45" produced by The Alchemist. On February 14, 2015 Earl debuted a new song titled "Quest/Power" via SoundCloud. On January 5, 2015, Earl released a song titled "silenceDArapgame" with professional skateboarder Na'kel Smith under the moniker Hog Slaughta Boyz. On March 16, 2015, The pre-order for Earl's second studio album, titled I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside appeared on the iTunes Store, without prior announcement. On March 17, 2015, Earl released a music video, for the song "Grief". The full album was released on March 23, 2015, but only the digital version; the physical version was released later on April 14, 2015. A later music video for the song "Off Top" was released on August 7, 2015. Earl stated in an interview with NPR that his record label gave him no notice they would release the album. He says he considers this his first album because he feels he can "back up everything, the good and the bad". On March 24, 2015, Sweatshirt announced, in his interview on NPR Microphone Check, ''Solace'', a "little project... for my mom" that he recorded in one take the previous year. On March 25, The Alchemist releases the single "Warlord Leather", featuring Sweatshirt and Action Bronson, to commemorate the release of Sweatshirt's album and Bronson's album Mr. Wonderful. On April 28, 2015, Sweatshirt released the ten-minute long song/EP Solace to his YouTube channel Dar Qness. He described it as "music from when I hit the bottom and found something." On May 2, 2015, London rapper Skepta talked about making music with Sweatshirt during his interview on Red Bull Music Academy. On May 13, Sweatshirt performed his songs "AM//Radio" and "Grief" on Jimmy Kimmel Live! with BadBadNotGood and Gary Wilson. On June 30, 2015, Vince Staples releases his debut studio album Summertime '06, that features the song "Ramona Park Legend, Pt. 2" which Sweatshirt contributes uncredited vocals on. On July 30, 2015, Sweatshirt expresses feelings of wanting to change his current rap name, simply tweeting "im finna change my rap name lol". He continues with "it's not about hating my past I just found a flight name that makes me laugh more than earl sweatshirt does" and "I ain't finna tell y'all till I got some music to drop with it. Just be on standby". On August 6, 2015, frequent collaborator Dash teases at a collaboration with Sweatshirt titled "Hunnit Beez". On August 8, Sweatshirt performs two new songs at The Low End Theory Festival, rumored to be titled "(I Be) Outside" and "Swamp Vermin // Boogeyman". On September 4, 2015, Sweatshirt is video recorded in the studio with hip hop producer 9th Wonder, potentially a future collaboration. On September 5, Sweatshirt performed three unreleased songs at Philadelphia’s Made In America Festival. One, reportedly titled "Hell", lifts the instrumental from ASAP Rocky’s song "Brand New Guy". On September 11, Dash releases his mixtape 17 More Minutes, which contains the track "Komin' Klean" produced by Sweatshirt. On November 25, 2015, Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter Santigold released the music video for her song "Who Be Lovin' Me", which Sweatshirt appears in as a cameo in multiple parts of the video. On December 11, 2015, Sweatshirt releases vinyl record copies of his albums Doris ''and ''I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside. On December 21, Sweatshirt performs at The Observatory in Santa Ana, California and plays five unreleased tracks. 2016–2018: Second hiatus and Some Rap Songs On January 12, 2016, an Earl Sweatshirt song produced by Samiyam called "Mirror" was leaked. Sweatshirt soon stated that it was indeed a leak and not an official release. On January 25, Sweatshirt uploaded three new tracks to his SoundCloud: "Wind in My Sails" produced by The Alchemist, "Bary" and "Skrt Skrt", the latter two of which were produced by Sweatshirt himself. "Wind in My Sails" contains samples from Captain Murphy's song "Children of the Atom" and vocal samples from Gene McDaniels's song "The Parasite (For Buffy)". "Bary" contains vocal samples from Kanye West's song "Barry Bonds". "Skrt Skrt" contains vocal samples from 21 Savage's song "Skrrt Skrrt". On January 27, Kanye West shared a photo of an updated handwritten track list of his then upcoming album The Life of Pablo that featured Sweatshirt's signature "EARL" above a doodle of Sweatshirt's nose and lips, potentially hinting at a collaboration on the album. This, however, did not happen. On March 2, 2016, Sweatshirt performs a DJ set at Boiler Room in Los Angeles under the alias DJ Earl Fletcher. On March 3, Sweatshirt made a cameo appearance in the music video for "Link Up" by NxWorries (Anderson Paak and Knxwledge). On March 4, Earl was featured on Samiyam's fourth studio album, Animals Have Feelings, on the previously leaked song "Mirror". Sweatshirt explained that the song was originally meant to be on I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside ''but was not included because "the tracklist got fucked up" due to sample clearing issues. The animated music video for "Mirror" was released on June 21, 2016. On July 21, 2016, Sweatshirt starred in the second episode of Action Bronson's comedy documentary show ''Traveling the Stars: Action Bronson and Friends Watch 'Ancient Aliens', titled "Dinosaurs", along with Bronson, Big Body Bes, The Alchemist, Knxwledge, and Schoolboy Q. Sweatshirt airs the pilot episode of his radio show with Knxwledge on Red Bull Music Academy, Stay Inside on July 22. On August 1, 2016, a instrumental track by Sweatshirt called "Pelicula" was posted on Apple Music. On August 17, Sweatshirt was featured on Adult Swim's 2016 singles program on the 13th week's track "Balance", produced by Knxwledge. On September 4, 2016, a new Earl track called "Death Whistles" was released on Earl's and Knxwledge's radio show on Red Bull Music Academy, produced by King Krule. Krule explained the collaboration in August 2017 by stating: On September 5, Sweatshirt appeared on an episode of record store Amoeba's internet series What's in My Bag? ''with Samiyam and discuss their respective purchases. On September 12, Sweatshirt reunites with Tyler, The Creator at Calgary’s One Love Music Festival and perform "Orange Juice", "Couch", and "Rusty". On September 18, Detroit rapper Danny Brown released "Really Doe", which Sweatshirt was featured on with Ab-Soul and Kendrick Lamar. The posse cut was Brown's third single to his fourth studio album ''Atrocity Exhibition, which was released on September 27. On September 22, Sweatshirt starred in the tenth and final episode of Action Bronson's Traveling the Stars: Action Bronson and Friends Watch 'Ancient Aliens', appearing with Bronson, Knxwledge, The Alchemist, Big Body Bes, Eric Andre, Too Short and Simon Rex. On November 6, 2016, Currensy and The Alchemist release The Carrollton Heist: Remixed, a remix album to their original 2016 collaborative album The Carrollton Heist, and Sweatshirt is credited for producing the track "The Mack Book Remix". On November 13, at Camp Flog Gnaw 2016, Sweatshirt reunites with Tyler, The Creator again, but this time under their previously retired duo name EarlWolf. They perform "Couch", "Drop", "Orange Juice", and "Rusty" with Domo Genesis. On November 14, underground rapper Mach-Hommy releases a track titled "Henrietta LAX", which Sweatshirt is credited for production. On December 23, 2016, Sweatshirt plays a previously unheard track rumored to be called "Bad Acid" on his radio show Stay Inside. On January 19, 2017, experimental rapper Denmark Vessey releases an Earl Sweatshirt-produced track titled "Snowing in LA". It was later included in the deluxe version of Vessey's 2015 EP Martin Lucid Dream. ''On February 27, 2017, Sweatshirt reveals that his upcoming album is being recorded by tweeting "making the album for you rn". On April 4, 2017, rapper Mick Jenkins tweets "SENT SENT SENT" at Sweatshirt, hinting at possible future collaboration. On May 27, 2017, Sweatshirt performs a new song rumored to be titled either "Hat Trick" or "Human Error" at the Movement Festival in Detroit, Michigan. Sweatshirt later confirms on June 26, 2017 that the track was in fact yet another leak and not an official release from him. On June 4, 2017, underground rapper Tha God Fahim releases his album ''Dump Gawd, which features a Sweatshirt-produced track titled "Don't Go Summer". The same song was also included on Fahim's album Dump Goat, released September 4, 2017. On June 10, 2017, Mach-Hommy releases his album Dump Gawd: Hommy Edition. The album features three tracks produced by Sweatshirt: "Allen Iverson" featuring Heem Stogied, "DNA Swab" featuring Tha God Fahim, and "Nothin' But Net" featuring Your Old Droog. On July 21, 2017, New York rapper Mike explains in an interview how Sweatshirt has taken the role of a mentor in his music career. On August 25, 2017, Wiki releases his debut studio album No Mountains in Manhattan, which features two Sweatshirt production credits; one for "Wiki New Written" and another for "Leppy Coqui". On September 2, 2017, another experimental New York-based rapper Medhane released his EP Do For Self, which contains the track "Agoura134", produced by Sweatshirt (credited as "thebe"). On September 12, Sweatshirt performs at Anaheim’s Day N Nite Festival and debuts a new, unnamed track. On October 25, 2017, Sweatshirt announces his new clothing brand called Deathworld. It was initially only available at Camp Flog Gnaw 2017 on October 28 and 29 until November 20, 2017 when Sweatshirt made the brand available on an online store. On November 1, 2017, Mach-Hommy teases a collaboration with Sweatshirt titled "A Day Late and a Dollar Short" over Twitter, but has since deleted the tweet. On November 6, Mach-Hommy released the EP Fete Des Morts AKA Dia De Las Muertos, which Sweatshirt produces six out of the eight tracks included ("Henrietta LAX", "TTFN", "Basin Bleu", "Carpe DM", "Manje Midi", and "Bride of the Water G-d"). The same day, The Alchemist takes to Twitter to tease Sweatshirt's new album, saying the album "is stupid" and that he "played mouth harp on a couple joints". On December 31, 2017, Sweatshirt confirmed that new music from him will be released in 2018, tweeting "new chunes 2018, don't think i wasn't at work". On January 3, 2018, Sweatshirt's father Keorapetse Kgositsile passed away from a short illness at the age of 79. This affected Earl a great amount, causing him to cancel that month's episode of Stay Inside as well as going inactive for the duration of the month on all social platforms except for one Instagram post of a picture of Keorapetse. On April 3, 2018, hip hop producer Cardo revealed that him and Sweatshirt had plans of doing a collaborative project in 2012 and that he would like to revisit that conversation. On April 20, Denmark Vessey released his third solo EP Sun Go Nova, which Sweatshirt contributes three production credits; on "Zzzzz", "Trustfall", and "Sellout". The same day, on an Instagram live, Vessey confirmed that more music with Sweatshirt does exist and that he does have an album on the way. On April 23, North Carolina rapper Phonte revealed that Sweatshirt was originally going to be featured on his second studio album No News Is Good News ''on the track "Cry No More", but the idea was scrapped because Phonte "felt exploitative" to do that because of the recent passing of Sweatshirt's father. On April 29, Sweatshirt performed at The Smokers Club in Long Beach, California, continuing to perform new, unreleased, and unnamed songs. On May 10, 2018, Odd Future associate, photographer, and skater Sagan Lockhart shared a snippet of a scrapped The Neptunes-produced instrumental from 2012, around the time Sweatshirt was first working on his debut album ''Doris. On May 23, Chicago rapper Lucki reveals a possible remix of his song "Distant" featuring Sweatshirt, posting on his Instagram story a screenshot of a text conversation between him and Sweatshirt: On June 4, 2018, Sweatshirt canceled all dates of his European Tour and representatives of Sweatshirt release this statement: On July 20, 2018, Sweatshirt was pictured with mastering engineer Mike Bozzi in a recording studio. On July 31, Oxnard, California-based rapper M.E.D. reveals to Sweatshirt via Twitter that himself, Blu and Madlib would like Sweatshirt to be featured on their upcoming collaborative album Bad Neighbors 2. On August 8, 2018, Sweatshirt performed at the final Low End Theory with Tyler, The Creator, Hodgy, Syd, Jasper Dolphin, and Taco. On September 21, 2018, The Alchemist released the track listing to his EP Bread, which contains the track "E. Coli" featuring Earl Sweatshirt. On September 25, Sweatshirt tweeted this following tweet, alluding to new music to be releasing soon: On October 4, 2018, The Alchemist revealed that he has listened to Sweatshirt's upcoming album and deemed it a "masterpiece". On October 8, Vince Staples posts a picture on his Instagram of himself and Sweatshirt back in the studio together. On October 26, experimental band Standing on the Corner livestreamed a visual album titled The Atmosphere Phased at 120º and Went Blank When the Universe Collapsed, which Sweatshirt performed pitch-shifted spoken word vocals for on the unofficially titled section "Snitch". On November 1, 2018, Vince Staples released his third studio album titled FM!, which features the track "New Earlsweatshirt (Interlude)" that Sweatshirt contributes a short verse to. On November 5, a video was uploaded to Sweatshirt's official YouTube Channel, Earl Sweatshirt, called "������". This video features a snippet of an instrumental accompanied my a clip of a supposed upcoming music video. On November 6, Earl released another video called "⚔️��️" containing another snippet of an upcoming song. On November 7, Earl announced the title of his new single on social media with the release of a third snippet video with the caption "NOWHERE2GO TOMORROW MORNING TAP IN". The following day, November 8, Sweatshirt released the song "Nowhere2go" as the lead single to his upcoming third studio album. It was produced by New York City-based producers Adé Hakim and Darryl Johnson, both members of the hip hop collective Slums. On November 11, Sweatshirt performed a 30-minute set at Camp Flog Gnaw 2018. He performed a never-before-performed song unofficially titled "Run For Your Life". Sweatshirt also performed songs from his albums Doris ''and I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside'', as well as various non-album singles, more unreleased music, and even brought out Na'kel Smith and Rico Nasty to perform their respective songs. On November 20, the second single "The Mint" was released. It features Sweatshirt's longtime friend Sage Elsesser under his rap alias Navy Blue and was produced by Black Noise. Sweatshirt also released the pre-order to his third studio ''Some Rap Songs'''' and announced the release date. On November 26, Sweatshirt released the official track listing of the album. On November 27, The Alchemist released the song "E. Coli" as the first single from his upcoming ''Bread ''EP, which featured Earl Sweatshirt. On November 30, Sweatshirt released his long-awaited third studio album, ''Some Rap Songs. On December 21, 2018, Sweatshirt's tour DJ and producer Stoney Willis released the single "Nu Stogie" that Sweatshirt features on. The song itself interpolates lyrics from an unreleased Sweatshirt from 2014, unofficially titled "Awkward Face". 2019–present: Nowhere, Nobody On January 12, 2019, Chicago rapper Lucki previewed new music on his Instagram live including a song said to produced by Sweatshirt. On January 13, Sweatshirt was interviewed on Pitchfork and he announced his departure from Columbia Records so he can do "riskier shit". On January 24, Sweatshirt released the winter 2019 line of Deathworld clothing. On January 29, during a Twitter Q&A, The Alchemist revealed that him and Sweatshirt have a entire project together on YouTube under a fake name. Many have said this is a joke and Alchemist is "trolling", as he does in his Twitter Q&As. On January 30, Sweatshirt released the short film ''Nowhere, Nobody'''' and announced the dates for his upcoming tour Thebe Kgositsile Presents: Fire It Up! A Tour Starring Earl Sweatshirt & Friends. On February 15, 2019, Lucki released his mixtape ''Freewave 3 ''that contains the aforementioned Sweatshirt-produced track, "All In". On March 1, 2019, singer-songwriter Solange, who was previously featured on Sweatshirt's radio show ''Stay Inside, released her studio album When I Get Home that featured the song "Dreams", which Sweatshirt produced the outro for. On March 23, Sweatshirt performed three never-before-heard songs at BUKU Fest 2019, marking the beginning of his 2019 Fire It Up! tour. On April 18, 2019, Earl's former tour DJ Stoney Willis released "Farm" with Sweatshirt, which the CDQ version of what was unofficially titled "Vultures" by fans since Sweatshirt first performed it in 2015. On May 6, 2019, Earl performed the last show of his Fire It Up! tour. Detroit rapper Zelooperz released the mixtape Dyn-o-mite, completely produced by Earl's current tour DJ Black Noise, which included the track "Easter Sunday 97" that Sweatshirt contributed a guest verse to. The music video was released later on May 20. Artistry Origin of name Sweatshirt has revealed his strange obsession with "old people" names. That is where he got the name Earl from. The same pattern occurs with the title of Sweatshirt's 2013 studio album ''Doris'' and the title of his 2015 song "Huey". Many speculate that he derived the "Sweatshirt" half of his stage from the multi-instrumental recording artist James Pants, whom Sweatshirt borrowed the instrumental from his 2008 song "Theme From Paris" for his own 2012 song "Home". Influences and favorite artists Sweatshirt has stated that he is influenced by MF Doom, Jay-Z, and Eminem. He has also stated several of his favorite rappers in the industry including Vince Staples, Billy Danze of M.O.P., Ka, and Mach-Hommy. Sweatshirt cites Madlib as his favorite producer. Discography Studio albums Extended plays Mixtapes Cancelled studio albums/extended plays/mixtapes Singles Other non-album songs Unreleased songs * All titles in this table are not confirmed and were titled by the fans. Leaked songs Guest appearances Uncredited vocals Production Awards and nominations Filmography Films Television Music videos Live action Animated Radio Tours Category:Person